Lent begins today, commemorating the story of Jesus and some friends trapped in the desert, starving, hot, miserable, and tempted by Satan. A reminder of piety. It's also a depressing reminder of how cripplingly addicted we are to Facebook.

The idea behind Lent, if I've read this Wikipedia entry correctly, is giving up a vice (let's say, smoking, fatty foods, or booze) and adding an activity that brings you closer to God. Like, I don't know, helping deliver babies (???). But the giving up bit is what gets the most attention, as it's a lot easier to brag about your deprivations, particularly in the age of easy online sharing. But some quick searching shows that the best way our teens, tweens, and other American imbeciles can connect their lives to the Biblical suffering of Christ is to forgo Twitter or FB for a few weeks. Which is... sort of missing the point.

Wellllll, I've decided to give up Facebook and Twitter for Lent.. soooo see you all in 40 days. #legggo

Tempted by the Facebook mobile app as Jesus was tempted by the Devil himself. This is deep stuff, @Nagz2007.

Here's a picture I found on Google Image Search of Jesus in the desert. I bet he wished he had Facebook so he could poke his buds.

There might be an argument that Facebook actually is one of the great vices of our time, more destructive to the self and others than any candy bar or bottle of beer, more alienating than any cloud of cigarette smoke or swear word. Or maybe it's just the easiest austerity measure available to us, and hey, at least we've got Pinterest, y'all!